Your digital products can help in 5 incredible ways

You heard this from almost every blogger worth his salt. The “how”of it is more complex question that will be addressed elsewhere. But it confused me on what exactly I can do Once I create my own digital product.

And oh, just clarify – although digital products often referred to eBooks, it can also be a sound clip, video, tutorial, Or anything else that can be distributed over the Internet.

So without much ado, here are five different ways of maximising benefits from your digital products.

1. Offer it for free

I’m not kidding.

Google became what it is by offering Gmail, Google Docs, and a host of other products for free.

Instead of charging your users upfront, you’ll get benefited in a host of other ways.

Make yourself known as an expert in the topic

Spread your opinion and persuade to imbibe the message

Advertise a product or service without sounding too salesy (with/without affiliate links)

Or, just derive satisfaction from helping the world

Make it a gift to the world – as simple as that.

Free products can also be given away in popular Internet marketing forums. Moderators don’t mind it because it’s completely free, and users don’t mind it because they are getting useful information at zero cost. But, the traffic that comes your way from the links within the document are priceless.

You’ll also find free products easier to manage. You not only share it on diverse platforms but also actively encourage others to do it. A few platforms that can evaluate for your free products –

Free products are absolutely loved by your peers and you’ll be improving your chances of getting noticed by the experts. After all, no one likes to subscribe to emails are like something to throw a cursory glance at your work 🙂

2. Exchange it for an email

Same old, same old – just put it up on your website, link it to an auto responder, and send the product to the subscriber lock, stock, and barrel.

Even to this day and age people still believe there is a host of information to be found in exchange for emails. Lucky you.

In this way you still retain copyright for your work, but spread the message at no direct cost to the consumer.

Getting subscribers is of course priceless for your blog. You get an audience who is already bought into you, interested in the same topics as you are, and willing to put up with some of your ramblings.

Of course since your product is going to be the first real value add for your subscribers, you’ve to be really careful about what exactly you are sending their way.

Alternatives to this include “pay by tweet/like” where you offer the product for sharing something on social media platforms.

3. Convert and share for even more value

Convert your eBook into slides, and then a video, or podcast. Make multiple channels work for you.

You can have users who are of more serious type who prefer books, your fans who prefer to see you on videos, or those casual visitors who just want to download the presentation that they’re never going to read through. You will cater to all these audiences and more by giving them what exactly they want.

One of the biggest traffic sources that Ana Hoffman recommends is to convert your blog posts into slide share documents, and possibly videos.

You can also see the same topic recommended by Brian Deane in a different way. Content upgrades for a post may include valuable resources, tools, or anyConvert from one format to the otherConvertthing else that adds value to the blog post.

I view content upgrades as something that is downloadable for the user. So a blog post converted into a PDF document, or a checklist that enumerates the recommendations in the post are a different form of the blog post but add incredible value to the user.

These content upgrades are typically exchanged for an email, but you could pretty much do whatever you want with them. One of the things that I have done here and elsewhere is to make the user “like” or tweaked the post to unlock the content.

4. Offer it as a bonus

If you have other digital products that are of higher value, you could bundle up the product in question as an added bonus when people buy the higher value product.

You could also uses digital product as an upsell to some other product. You funnel potential buyers through a lower value product, and lead them to this specific product which adds even more value to the base.

An easier way out that I have used elsewhere – use your digital product as a bonus when people buy products that you are promoting as an affiliate. Platforms like a JVZoo make this really easy by providing storage space to securely your bonus with your patrons.

5. Sell your digital product

The most straightforward, but still the last option in our list – just sell the product for money.

You have a couple of options here –

Sell your product on popular platforms
For example use Amazon for eBooks, a host of photography/image sharing websites to sell images, eBay for almost everything. You retain copyright on your work (or not, depending on the platform). You also gain more visibility since these are the mainstream platforms for the respective digital assets. But at the same time you also have more competition.

Sell your product on niche specific forums or websites
You can sell your Internet marketing manuals, guides and anything about making money online on Warrior Forum, Digital Point, or (if you’re feeling adventurous) any of the numerous blackhat forums out there. You have to shell out money to advertise your product and there are custom-made platforms catering to some of the forums (e.g. Warrior+)

Sell your product and provide rights of distribution to buyers
Typically happens in low value products, or products that do not relay any stunningly new information. You not only sell your product but also the rights of distribution along with the product. You can either allow the buyer to claim your work as her own and sell it to somebody else, or just resell the as-is product.

In summary: do any of these to add tangible or intangible value to yourself.